Use Joomla! 1.5 on your own computer

From Joomla! Documentation

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Background

It is very useful to be able to learn and experiment on your own machine. This is about downloading a sample Joomla! site to your own computer, known as a 'localhost' installation. It has some helpful sample content that allows you to become familiar with the way that a Joomla! site is put together.

Experience needed

Not everyone using this Manual will have enough experience to feel comfortable doing this. You need to know a little about computing, for example:-

Know where to find files on your computer and be able to create folders

You can download something from a Web site and save it in an appropriate place

You will not panic if you do not understand a concept!

Experienced developers and people with programming experience will be fine. If in doubt - follow the instructions and try it!

Summary

There are three basic stages in doing this:-

Downloading and installing some software that Joomla! needs to use to run locally. This is a web server called Apache, a database called mySQL and a scripting language called PHP. There are a few other things as well - which are downloaded together as one package called XAMPP.

Downloading and installing Joomla!

Configuring Joomla!

Download and install XAMPP

To run Joomla! on a Windows desktop or laptop you need to download and install some software needed by Joomla!. This includes a web server called Apache, a database called mySQL and a scripting language called PHP. The point of this to to configure your own machine to behave as if it were a server with the difference being that the result is not visible over the internet and is thus confined to your own computer. This is very useful for learning new things and even developing a new web site.

A file with the XAMPP logo is saved to the Download folder. In Windows Explorer Details view, the file type will be Application.

Install XAMPP

Extract the software and install the files.

Run the file

Double-click the file name

You may be asked to confirm that you want to run the file - if so - Click Run.

The next window gives on-screen instructions.

Use the top level of the C: drive - so leave the C: as it is. (If you want it elsewhere, Browse for the folder where you want it)

Click Install

Installation Progress is indicated on the screen. When the files are extracted, a Windows command screen asks a few questions to configure the installation.

Respond to these with the defaults.

The files are placed in the correct locations and you are then prompted to press <Return> to continue and to confirm the timezone.

Finally the screen presents 7 choices.

Choose 1 to start the Control Panel and press Return

Choose x to Exit the install process

You should see a XAMPP Control Panel on the desktop. To open it is it is not already open:-

Double-click the Control Panel icon on the desktop.

This is the Control panel with the services running.

Apache and MySQL need to run as services (indicated by a tick against Svc in the Control Panel). Make sure the following are set:-

Apache Svc is ticked

Apache is Running (Click Start to run it)

MySQL Svc is ticked

MySQL is Running (Click Start to run it)

Now test it

Type in the site's address in your browser - which is http://localhost/

If it has not been successful - you will get a message saying 'Unable to Connect'. The most likely cause is that Apache or mySQL are not running.

Use the Control Panel to check these.

If it has been successful - there will be a splash page with a choice of languages.

Choose your language

You now see a Welcome page which says 'You have successfully installed XAMPP on this system!'. There are also various links to documentation and other things to the left.

You can move on to downloading and installing Joomla! itself.

Download and install Joomla!

Before download and installation

Create a folder for the Joomla installation with a suitable name

Under the XAMPP folder (for example C:\XAMPP\) there is a folder called htdoc (C:\XAMPP\htdoc ). This is the folder under which all content that will be seen on the localhost Web site is located. (There are already files there - such as index.html which displays the logo for XAMPP)

Open the htdoc folder

Create a folder under htdoc to contain the Joomla! files. (It can have any name but Joomla15 is often used for example sites).

Download files for Joomla!

Quick and painless. (It will be called a Compressed(zipped) Folder in the Details list in Windows Explorer)

Install the files for Joomla! in the right folder

Right-click the downloaded zip file

Choose Extract All

The Extraction Wizard prompts for where you want the files to be located. This is in the folder created above - for example C:\xampp\htdoc\Joomla15

Click Browse and find the right directory

Click OK

Check that the 'Files will be extracted to this Directory' box has the right folder displayed.

Click Next

GSinstallJoomla1

place marker for screen

Progress is indicated by the blue bar. When completed an Extraction Complete screen displays.

Click Finish

The files are in the right place and you are ready to set Joomla! up for use.

Configure Joomla! and install the example data

Open the Jooma! site:

If you called the folder for the Joomla! files 'joomla15 - then the go to http://localhost//joomla15 . If you called the file something else - then use the name of that file instead of 'joomla15'.

Open the Joomla! site in your browser

The screen is the start of Joomla! Installation which steps through seven choices.

1. Select the language and press the Next button

2. Look at the Pre-installation check. There should not be any red items, apart from Display Errors, which can read On. Press Next to continue.

3. Read the GNU General Public License page and press Next

screen here of the config page with the right settings

5. The database configuration page. Enter the details into the form:-

Leave database type as mysql

Host name is localhost

User Name is root

Set a password for the user name for the database. Use something you will remember!

Database name - this is the name of this instance of Joomla! - in the example here use joomla15. If you used a different name - use that here for the database name. Press Next.

6. Skip the FTP configuration - so press Next

7. Site name and sample data. In the form:-

Give it a name - such as 'Sample'

Enter and email

Enter a password - and remember this as it lets you use the site!

The rubric explains why you need this.

To load the sample data.

Click the button that says - Install Sample Data.

The button will then read ' Sample data installed successfullly'.

screen here of this - it is slightly confusing

Why do this? To give you some data so that you can see how a Joomla! site hangs together and also you can edit articles and observe different ways of doing things. There is a separate documentation about using this data - so it is a useful resource. If you want both a site with sample data and a site with no data - you can install another instance of Joomla! on the same computer as explained in the last part of this document.

If you want a clean installation, install Joomla! without the data.

Press Next to continue when all is done

Note: Sometimes there is a message that the database won't connect. The fix - Click Previous and remove the password. Check that the other settings are the same as those above and then continue.

The Finish screen has helpful advice.

You need to do one more thing -

Remove the installation directory - in this example it is at C:\xampp\htdoc\joomla15\installation

If you try to go on to use the site - you will be prompted to do this. You are then allowed to continue.

To use the site and the administration pages

Assuming the site is 'Joomla15':-

The site is http://localhost/joomla15/

The administration page is http://localhost/joomla15/administration

If you have used a different name - put that in instead of 'Joomla15'

How to install another instance of Joomla! on localhost

You can install and configure another instance of Joomla! using a different name. You do not need to download it again as it is already in your download folder.

Create a new folder under htdoc - with a different name from the first installation. For example - development

Extract the files from the Joomla! download in exactly the same way - but Browse for the new folder name.

Configuring Joomla!

This time:-

Open the Joomla! site - assuming the folder was called is 'development':-

The site is http://localhost/development/

The administration page is http://localhost/development/administration

If you have used a different name - put that in instead of 'development'

The set up stages are the same - except that the database will need the name of the site. And do not enter a password for mySQL root if there is a database error.

And - of course - do not install the sample data.

How to uninstall Joomla! and XAMPP

You may want to uninstall Joomla! and XAMPP. If you do this - make sure you have copies of anything you may need, such as configuration files.

There are two possibilities.

1. Use the uninstall script

The easy way - you can use the uninstall script.

Find the script \XAMPP\uninstall_xampp.bat (It appears on the Details list in Windows Explorer as a MS-DOS Batch File).

Run this script (Double-click on the file name)

This opens a command window and asks if you want the htdocs directory deleted.

If you choose 'n' - it does not delete the folders \XAMPP\htdocs and \XAMPP\mysql\data - so you will need to do this yourself.

If you choose 'y' - it deletes these folders as well

The services are then stopped and the control panel removed from the desktop. The next message is that it will delete the files. Your response should be y for uninstalling the package.

OR . .
2. Manually delete the files

The installation can be uninstalled by deleting all the files under the \XAMPP\ folder, but there may be errors if you do not stop the services and check that nothing is running first.

Stop the services using XAMPP Control Panel

Untick the Svr button - so that mySQL and Apache are no longer running as services